Feickert Protractor - anyone use one?

If you are only going to have one turntable and never own another one the Mint is the way to go, it is very accurate, but it is made for your specific combo of table and arm, so if you ever change one or the other you must get a new one made.

I have a Mint that I bought and used for a year or so. It gets things aligned very well, but it take a while to get things correct. It takes me, by far, the longest to align a cartridge with the Mint that any other I have ever used. Meaning it takes a long time to get it set up just perfect. It's not difficult just time consuming.

Eventually I bought a Feickert protractor to try.  Surprisingly it took me less than 10 minutes to align my cart, so quick that I really didn't believe that it could be accurate. Pulled out my Mint and it was spot on. So plus one for the Feickert.

Fast forward a few years later and I bought a new tonearm and turntable, used the Feickert to setup the cart and found it just as easy and fast, have changed carts a few times and it was always quick and easy to get it properly aligned. Two months ago I decided to get another Mint (better to have more than one way to verify the carts alignment, I'm thinking) made for my table and arm. After I got the Mint I put it on my table and put the cart down on it that was aligned 4 months prior with the Feickert and the cart was perfectly aligned on the Mint protractor. Didn't have to tough or adjust a thing. 

So at this point I would say to just buy the Feickert and use it correctly and you will be just as good as if you had bought the Mint (or any other protractor). 

YMMV.

mohawk, I've used a Dennesen for years.  It predates the Feickert and works on the same principles but is not as versatile.  It has been out of production for years and was offered in both metal (which I have) and plastic versions (lower cost).  It does have a "divot" to precisely locate the stylus tip.  Used examples do appear from time to time.

https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0SO8zY5DoJZi_4AMztXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEycmVrcm81BGN...

While I've never used a Feickert I expect it has the same limitation as my Dennesen.  They really only work with arms which provide some means of identifying the precise pivot point for the arm.  That can be a bearing set screw, damping fluid well, etc.  If you are simply trying to estimate location of the pivot point, whether by eye or by measuring, I don't believe you can have the necessary accuracy for something as precise as the stylus alignment. 

Feickert is great, worth the price (especially used), i use it with all my tonearms and i don't need any other protractors. I like the build quality. design and accurasy and if you can find any better it must be very expensive. The cheaper protractors are not as good and the design of the cheaper protractors are funny. Feickert is the real thing! 

Yes, but ANY alignment tool is worthless if you have not accurately set the P2S distance in the first place. This (difficulty in locating the pivot point) is not a flaw of the Feickert; it is a flaw built into the tonearm by a designer who neglected to account for it.  I actually believe that the Feickert (I have the older original version that uses a white plastic platform shaped like a full size LP, not the newer one that uses a black platform which is about half of a circle in shape) is better than most protractors for helping to precisely set P2S, so long as the pivot can be located with accuracy.  I also own a UNItractor, which is yet another much more elaborate take on the original Dennesen.  For its high cost, the basic original UNI does not incorporate a measure for P2S.  I was offered such a device as an accessory, for a mere $395 additional.  (In fairness, this issue may have been fixed in later versions of the base UNI.) Anyway, I use the Feickert to set P2S, and then depending upon how anal I want to get, I may use the UNI from there forward.  I also have a metal Dennesen, which sits in a box.